Monday, December 28, 2009

"Congratulations on your recent conception"- Hna. Hoskins

Familia!

I love you. Getting to talk to you on Christmas was the best Christmas Present ever. I hope not knowing when I was going to call didn't make things too stressful for you. Next time, I think I'll call that morning and let you know when I'm going to call later, since that's apparently totally legit. Transfer News: I'm staying! I get to stay here in BearCreek, probably for two more transfers, I'd guess... But little Hermana Russon is leaving, she's going to go to LittleYork to be companions with my old companion Hermana Bastian. I'm sad that we only got one transfer together, but I'm really looking forward to this next experience. I don't know who my companion is yet, because I'm going to be training one of the new sisters coming in on Wednesday. And President doesn't assign our trainers and trainees until after he's met them all/prayed about it. So, next week I'll be able to tell you about my new companion. I'm way excited to train, I think it's going to be a blast. So far, I've been very blessed with amazing companions. So, we'll see how this goes. My MTC companion Hermana Gurney is also going to train. She gets to White-wash train in her baby-area—meaning the area she served in when she first got to the mission—Westgreens, I'm so jealous! I'd love to whitewash City View, but they've only got Elders serving in that ward now... They took the sisters out shortly after I moved to CrossTimbers last summer, so I probably won't get the chance, but I can imagine she's as excited right now as I would be if I got to go open up the City View sisters area. Elder Herrman is also training, so when we all get together to meet our Greenies, it's going to be a bit of an MTC district reunion. Very fitting, I think.

The subject line is what Hermana Hoskins said when she found out I was going to train.

Christmas sounds like it was really wonderful! I had a great Christmas here. One of the happiest and most meaningful of my life. I didn't get homesick at all actually, I looked forward to getting to talk to you all on the phone and after I hung up, I was a little sad for a split second. But then I saw that dad had hung up at exactly 59 minutes and 59 seconds and that made me laugh. Hurray for exact obedience! And I remembered that next time I talk to you isn't really all that far away. This was the long stretch of months and it's ya llevar acabo-ed. How's that for horrible Spanglish?

We had a wonderful dinner with Ashley and her mother. I got to hear funny/terrifying “Drill Sergent Stories” from her days in the army.

Getting to play with the family is so priceless though. I'm really looking forward to getting to see you all for Christmas next year and spend it as a family. But no... I actually didn't get legitimately homesick, just a touch nostalgic, we'll say. Our Christmas P-day was wonderful. I already told you a little bit about that. I'm not sure when Hermana Thomas is going back, but I'm sure she'll be fine. She's got a large chunk of good saints praying for her and she's a strong/righteous person, so whatever happens, she'll be fine, and hopefully she'll be back out here with us in just a short while. When I described to Ashley how I'd been trying to at least cry silently during President's prayer (and then failed miserably) she said that was exactly what happened to her when she started coming back to church and working through the repentance process. Every Sunday in church as they passed the sacrament and she couldn't take it she would try to at least sob quietly, but it never worked and people always stared. But the experience helped her gain and more profound appreciation for her baptismal covenants, and now that she can take the sacrament again, she doesn't take it for granted.

I loved Jensen's description of the movie Avatar as “Ferngully on Steroids”. I think I'll have to see that one when I get back. And Ferngully. I don't remember much about that old movie, except that I liked it a lot as a kid until I was old enough to start getting annoyed with the unintelligent, irrational conclusions reached by some of our adorable environmentalist brethren and then it just made me exasperated.

And Sherlock Holmes sounds pretty slick. Holidays and movies always go together... I was so happy when the Zone Leaders told us we could watch the Peanuts Christmas special. I loved my presents from all of you and I especially loved getting those letters from you folks. I think that was the best gift I got to unwrap. I'm happy, I'm healthy more or less and I'm so excited to be out here doing the Lord's work! I love you all like crazy! MWAH.

Hermana Lillywhite

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Familia!

First off... announcement... Steven got baptized last night! YAY! And His less-active older sister came. It was a wonderful baptism, though it was nearly a bit of a disaster. Poor Hermana Russon was a little stressed. I was too, secretly, but I didn't let it show, because no body needs two panicked sisters at a baptism. It was just a problem with the whole program not showing up for a few ages, and also we had no baptismal jumpers for Steven. He's 12, but he's really tiny. We ended up using an adult jumper and just rolling up the sleeves. Then, the only other jumper we had (the rest were dresses) had a broken zipper when Pompo tried to put it on. So he was struggling with that in the bathroom for a little while, trying to beg safety-pins off of people and stuff. In the end it all worked out though. He got baptized and that's what's important, and his less-active mom is making lots of friends in the ward.

La Hermanita Diaz just got home from her mission to Argentina. We got to talk to her a little at the Christmas Party Saturday night. “Raro.” was all she kept saying when people would ask her how she felt. Raro is like weird. She looked a little bit uncomfortable and out of place. I was watching her saying to myself, “Aww... that's going to be me one day. How cute.” We made arrangements for her to come out with us this week, and when I pulled my planner out she say it and was like, “Oohhhh. I miss that.”

These planners are amazing. So efficient and practical. I said the other day that God himself probably designed them, and I wasn't being cheeky, I actually think these planners are a product of revelation. But everybody laughed, and I was like, “No. I'm serious.”

FELIZ NAVIDAD! It's Christmas this week. We are SO excited! This has been a really wonderful, oddly warm Christmas season for me. I told Hermana Russon about the Stained Glass Orchard Christmas story that I've got in mind to write when my hands are untied and fate returns the quill to it's rightful place in my hand. I clearly have lost all my writing skills, and will need to be periodically reminded when I accidentally use words that don't exist in English. All this great Christmas music that you folks sent me and also that I discovered here, has got me piecing together a soundtrack for the motion picture. Which is a little strange, since I haven't even written the book yet, and have no funding.

What's the song called on the CD you sent me...? Track 6? Really gorgeous rich baritone voice and the lyrics are a narration of when the Angel told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem? “Prepare and go, the Angel said, to Bethlehem...” Something a long those lines. I feel like it's familiar to me, but I can't think where I've heard it before. Probably as a special number in church or something... anyway, I REALLY love that song.

Home sounds so brilliant. Everyone's continuing in their common vocations in life... rescuing animals, singing Christmas songs, repainting the bedroom. Actually, I managed to impress some of the Latino men I've taught, because they'll occasionally talk about how difficulty tiling is and then I just shrug and say, “Yeah. Been there, done that.” in Spanish. I definitely do remember when we took on that particular project. I bet it'll look gorgeous, I hope you all have a little fun working on that.

Yeah, I remember you mentioned about dad's sabbatical. I thought only professors got sabbaticals? If you guys do decide to go to the grand canyon or something, do send me pictures. And be careful. I keep hearing stories about people falling to their deaths recently. Tenganse cuidado.

I ended up sending off a little Christmas package last week for y'all. I don't know if you'll get it until today in the afternoon or tomorrow though, just because of the high quantity of mail etc. Holidays, ya know? Plus, I didn't send it priority. But it's just got this rather nice picture of ME that I thought you would appreciate on an artistic basis, and plus I'm in it looking quite snug in the Tejas snow. And you can see my nametag. I really like this picture. Ashley, who works at Walgreens, developed our footage and then decided to redo the display, so now there's a bunch of pictures of missionaries hanging up in the foto department at her Walgreens. She says people sort of look funny at it sometimes, and she just chuckles and takes their money.

There's also a copy of a CD that I've fallen in love with. Track #11 is particularly amazing. I love it, because it's very much a Christmas song, so I think about Christmas and my savoir... but it also sounds a lot like the Violin bit in Serenity to me at the beginning. Plus it's quite dark and rich. Mmm. Sounds like chocolate to me. But yeah, I don't know when you'll get that. Or if you'll get it. Tell Chantal I got her letters, and I'm working on her Christmas package. I'm sending her the same CD and a Book of Mormon, that she must cherish forever. I'm also nearly complete with my story-summary-notebook, which I told her she could have while I'm gone, since she asked about what ideas I've gotten while I'm on my mission, I figure she might like to read them herself and send me her thoughts on my righteous madness... But first, she's getting a Book of Mormon for Christmas and a Jenny Oaks Baker CD. So is Brighteyes. I know it's not really a surprise if I write what their getting in here, but hey. I'm a missionary. What did they think they would get from me this year? I might actually wrap them up in paper and then write IT'S A BOOK OF MORMON! On the wrapping, just so the surprise is really utterly ruined.

BABY RATS! I love little ratties. I'm glad the kitties are more or less being good about the new pets. Diggy is so silly. I can just picture him sitting, totally serene and gentlemanly inside of the rat cage with the little sillies playing with that ridiculous fluffy tail he's got.

The Christmas program sounds charming. Silly Laney. Give her a kiss for me. I feel like me or Jensen did that once too? Did we? I wish I could hear you all sing! I was trying to figure out if any of the songs on that CD were done by daddy's chior.

Good job in school Jensen! Let me know what her final grades are. Would you do me a huge favor and PLEASE please please, TALK with Mr. Darcy before I get back?! That is, assuming that he hasn't moved back to England to marry someone named Elizabeth or Jane or Georgina. I love hearing of romance. So delightful. The thing I'm going to regret about this attitude is that someone will probably hold me to it when I get back, but I'll worry about that later. For now. I'm Hermana Lillywhite. Soy misionera.

Good luck on your Kung Fu test Jensen! And tell Chantal I said MWAH as well! You'll both do great. Send pictures of the carnage.

Well, I'm just going to end my letter there. There's tons more I could say, but since I get to hear your voices on FRIDAY! YAY CHRISTMAS! I'll just leave it here. I LOVE you and I miss you, but I've felt it again and again. I'm here for a wise purpose and this is exactly where I want to be this holiday season. Besito and besito.

Happy Christmas! Hermanita Lillywhite

Monday, December 14, 2009

RIP MEMO

One of my investigators died this last week: Memo, who was very old, and I never actually met the man, but he enjoyed drinking, smoking and reading the Bible, he was living with a family who we're still teaching, because shortly before I got here, he moved out and we weren't able to get back in contact with him until he was checked into the hospital. But then he died. It's very sad, but he was very old, and as we explained to the children Alison and Jorge, his name has just been given as a referral to missionaries in the spirit world, and they're going to finish teaching him all the lessons so he can get baptised too. I can't get a straight answer as to who this man was in relation to this family. He's apparently not a family member, but just a close friend who was staying there for a while while he looked for work.

I got everybody's packages! Thank you to Aunt Kim, and Mommy and Daddy! I had a very happy Birthday with lots of fun stuff to open! (Mom, I didn't open the stuff that was marked X-mas, was I supposed to wait? I'm so curious! Am I supposed to open everything in the box, or wait...?) And Aunt Kim's donnescitos for me and my companion were adorable!

The CD worked great and I love your selections!

This last week was really amazing. We had sister's P-day which was SO much fun. And very inspiring as well. We had a sister's conference that night with just us Sister Missionaries (And the presidency and the Assistants and a random husband of the singer who was really nice...) Mostly just us girls though.

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the English sisters. That was very fun. Sister Hoskins wants to learn Spanish so badly. Both her parents speak Spanish (mom's Hispanic and her dad is a returned missionary who spoke Spanish) but she never bothered to learn... but she was way awesome.

I got to go to the temple for my birthday which was amazing, and wonderful. And then Friday we had the huge yearly service project, Navidad en El Barrio, which was SO fun. Just about the whole mission was there to put together gifts for underprivileged children. It was a blast.

Not to much else to report on, this is going to be a short letter this week, but I'm really happy to have gotten to hear for you guys today... And I loved getting those packages! I had a very happy birthday and a very happy week, and I especially appreciate you guys remembering my birthday. I'm way excited to see those pictures!

MWAH! I love you. Hermana Lillywhite

Monday, December 7, 2009

Snowday!

Querida fambly,
Home sounds so lovely! I was warned repeated that I was going to get really homesick for the holidays, but so far, I’m very much fine. I miss you guys, and it sounds like you’re having a wonderful Christmas season, but so am I! I do wish I could see little baby Bella playing with the Christmas tree. You should probably send me some videos of Christmasness at home si quieran. I love that Laney used the line from Miss Congeniality, that is so her. The treats you’re making sound amazing! Yummy, yummy… Mexican dulces, are NOT that great, but luckily, they recognize that and usually will finish meals with more Americanized desert or fruit. Which is good. Because you can’t eat rice pudding or tamarindo for every meal, and not enough people know how to make flaun(sp?). I don’t think I spelled that right, but you know what I mean.
Poor daddy, I’ve been kind of sick too. I think it might be allergies, actually. I’ve never had them before, but apparently a lot of people develop them when they move here. I love your paragraph on Jensen, it so embodies her completely. Excellent writing. I’m glad she’s being cute and taking care of herself. Gina-ga-bobbin, you’re probably going to have to reteach me a ton of Kung Fu. I remember very little, it’s a problem.
I’m glad you liked my card mommy! I wanted to wish you a happy Birthday in time, so I hope it got there fast… I also meant to write you a happy birthday note before, but I forgot, because I’m silly. So… HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YAY!
Everything sounds lovely and homey… They keep us very occupied during the holidays, I think as a way to put off any homesickness that might arise, especially among the newbies. So, this week—today, actually, we’ve got an activity and a conference with ALL the sisters, which means we’re probably going to have to do some P-day stuff, like shopping, tomorrow. We’ve also got service tomorrow, interviews & probably planning on Wednesday, and then… guess what I get to do on Thursday?
TEMPLE DAY! What a great present for me. I am so excited that we get to go to the temple for my birthday… I had pretty much forgotten all about it. So, before, the exciting thing about Thursday was that we get to go to the temple. I just now, as I was writing this, remembered that it’s also when I turn 22. Crazy. I feel old. I also look, dress and talk like a tex-mex church-lady. Gosh. I sure grew up interesting.
Friday, we’ve got Navidad en El Barrio (Christmas in the Neighbourhood) Barrio is also the word we use for ward, but this isn’t actually a church thing. It’s a community service project that we get to take part in… Next week is more or less normal I think (Which is good, cause I’d like to teach a little this month) and then the week after that, we’ve got two pdays… regular and then mission p-day, and then temple as a mission, then another community service thing and then Christmas.
Crazy month.
They don’t want to give us any time to think about anything, I think. Which is probably really good.
Alright… well, news and stories. I’ll just do highlights: Last P-day, we went to go do our Laundry at Ashley’s place, and when we came over, she was sleeping on the couch and then she told us about her night/early Monday morning. She’d gotten a call from a co-worker at about 2 in the morning and he asked her to please come pick him up because he was drunk out of his mind and couldn’t drive home. She’s pretty sure he didn’t even mean to call her—probably thought he was talking to someone else—but she went to rescue him anyway, and after she’d loaded him in the passenger seat she was like, “Okay, where do you live?”
His response, before he passed out was, “I don’t know… Houston?”
So, she took him home, tucked him into her bed, read him a scripture, which he didn’t remember, and then slept on the couch until we showed up a few hours later.
Just… just imagine, waking up hung over to find yourself in a strange house where two missionaries are sitting cross legged in the living room studying “El Libro de Mormon” & “La Santa Biblia”. Maybe it’s mean, but I kinda wanted to mess with him and just speak Spanish for a while, for an added measure of surreality. I didn’t though, I was very polite and we introduced ourselves formally after he finally woke up a few hours later. We talked to him a lot about missionary work and the gospel while Ashley got herself ready for work. They left the house together after Ashley’s mom got home, and apparently talked about the gospel the whole way home. He admitted that he is looking for the truth, and that he thinks everything we were talking about was interesting and he would like to know more. He’s gringo though, so we can’t teach him… but I now his missionaries and they’re great, so I don’t mind giving him away to them.
We spent the rest of P-day waiting for our Laundry to get done and watching “The Book of Mormon Movie” which Ashley had on VHS.
Oh. My. Chispas. Y. Hijole.
HOW DID THAT GET FUNDING?! HOW DID A COUPLE OF HALF DECENT ACTORS PARTICIPATE IN THAT, I ASK YOU!? Who is… responsible? I must, have them brought before me forthwith.
Alright, so Kirby is always fun, and there was something weirdly appropriate about him as Sam, but mostly it was just WRONG. And Pilote (I don’t know the actor’s name, but he’s Pilote from El Cordero de Dios) is such a good guy, why was he involved?! Nephi’s a good looking man and all, but geez… the whole thing was just so… It was just wrong. I felt like I’d been battered and assaulted after it was over. I really lament the possibility that any non-member ever saw that.
Because, let’s be honest… It’s kind of fun to go all MST3000 and watch bad church movies with active members, but people can NOT think that, THAT is what the Book of Mormon is like. Nephi was so whiney. Huge. But he acted like a little girl, and his nasty brothers were so unbelievable… And acting was bad. The writing was AWFUL. The sets—well, it was Utah, so it wasn’t bad except for being recognizable. Artistically, I just had a huge problem with it. I would have done everything differently. Every single shot, from the beginning to the end. Different angle, different actors, different costumes, different… all of it. The daughter of Ishmael… hijole, let’s just not get into the romance. Let’s not. That was uncomfortable.
Aside from all that, I liked it.
Actually, it did help me appreciate the awesomeness that is the book of Mormon in comparison to the horridness of the movie in which they tried so hard to depict some of it. Which, is good, because it got me all geared up for Zone Conference last week, which was all about The Book of Mormon, and how great it is.
I’ve NEVER read the book of Mormon like this before. Before my mission, I loved it, and I loved reading my scriptures, but now, I just eat it up. I’m actually depressed sometimes when I have to spot reading. I’m almost to the war chapters in Alma. And I can’t believe how enthralling the story is. I’ve always understood it, I think, but sometimes the strange words were awkward, distracting, but I’m so used to it now that it just doesn’t bother me. I’m so into it. Jensen. One day, when we are both insanely wealthy and eccentric geniuses, we shall have another go at cinematic depiction of some of these stories. It shall be awesome. Work on sketches and story-board. NOW!
So yeah, Zone Meeting was amazing. It was all about using the Book of Mormon more in our teaching.
We have a new baptismal date… Lauren is a cute little girl who we just met last week. She’s got friends in the ward, but she doesn’t speak Spanish. She wants to go to the Spanish ward anyway though, because her mother does speak Spanish and her mother will probably start coming to the Spanish ward. It’s not a problem in the young women classes, since there’s minimal Spanish among the younger people, but in Sacrament meeting, she needed me to translate. It was intense. I just had to lean over with my mouth by her ear, tune into whatever was being said at the pulpit and go into this kind of trance, just filtering the Spanish in through one ear and letting it come out in English. It was very cool, but I’m not sure how well I did. I didn’t really have time to think about it, I just had to talk. No time for correction/etc.
There were a couple of moments when I’d miss a word because they’d talk quietly, or someone would cough or a young child would start screaming and I’d usually get totally derailed and just have to try and pick up the strain again… I’m pretty sure there were a couple of moments like this, “I know that Jesus Christ is my Savoir and that he died for my sins, and I know that God—BABY screaming, that was a baby screaming, sorry, what’s she saying?! Oh, yeah—we are all God’s children and the Gospel is…” and I’d just say the interruptions like a talking subtitler or something. Hilarious. Lauren seemed to find it pretty amusing too.
She’s so great. Her parents want us to teach her because she’s supposedly a ‘problem child’. She’s twelve though, and adorable and very nice. I think she’s just been through a lot. She’s moved all over the place. When I first met her, I remembered this line from Jane Eyre, when Mr. Rochester says something about Jane being like a little bird that is afraid to move too suddenly for fear of being struck, or something like that. That’s Lauren. She’s very still.
We’re working with her mom too. She thinks that she’s already been baptized. We’ve yet to explain that without the Priesthood… No vale. Next lesson: Authority/The Book of Mormon is so great.
It snowed on Friday! I’ve got pictures of me being dorky in the snow. And some video of how Texas looks like Utah sometimes. It’ll be part of my Merry Chirstmas stuff that I send to people.
Well, I’d better say goodbye, we’ve got to get going so we can make it down to the mission home for the activity. I corazon all of you.
Missing you, and giving lots of cyberoisty hugs! Paz & Amor a vosotros.
Hermana Lillywhite